Originally designed as a ferryboat, she was purchased by the Navy before entering commercial service and converted into a fighting vessel.

Fort Henry was originally one of a batch of six ferryboats ordered by the Union Ferry Company for service on the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

A sloop was taken off Bayport, Florida, 9 April, where the group engaged an enemy battery and set a schooner aflame with its fire.

[1] On 20 July 1863, Fort Henry sent her launch to reconnoiter the Crystal River, an expedition in which two of her men were killed by fire from the shore.

[10] Renamed Huntington, the vessel entered commercial service as a ferry,[10] operating between Manhattan and Hunter's Point, Queens.